I'm going to need to find a good synopsis of the plot of XIII before I jump into XIII-2 though... I can hardly recall the nuts and bolts of it. To be honest I didn't quite gather what the hell was going on even while I played it.

There is actually a chapter-by-chapter written synopsis of XIII within XIII-2. And like XIII, it would benefit you greatly to read all of the datalog entries. I know it's the only way that I can tell what the hell is going on in either of those games...

Most of the plot in FFXIII felt pretty irrelevant in FFXIII-2 though. Only thing that seemed important was the epilogue.

We can go for hours if you want talking about this.

Long story short though is that XIII wasn't a trilogy at first but then XIV 1.0 and other shenanigans happened at SQEX and the story was expanded. Was that bad? No. Should people be all nitpicky about it? Yeah why not, but you know how opinions work in the Internet.

Point is that the story was expanded in a nice way and the connection of the three games goes as far as it need to go to leave every game to be its own thing in the process.

Didn't mean it in a bad way. Just saying that Klyde will not be missing much if he goes into FFXIII-2 without having a great memory of the first game.

I had no idea there were novels... that info is golden my friend. I will totally be checking those out.

I don't know why it seems that I have utterly and completely eradicated my recall of XIII. I just didn't enjoy it and I can't even come up with a decent argument as to why. It just really WAS NOT my cup of tea I suppose. I remember clearly how grindy the last chapter felt. I also remember how relieved I was to see the credits roll, but thats about it.

« Last Edit: November 11, 2013, 04:53:04 PM by Klyde Chroma »

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In this world is the destiny of mankind controlled by some transcedental entity or law? is it like the hand of god hovering above? Perhaps Man has no control even over his own will…

To be fair, there are so many names and historical events that play into the plot of FFXIII and yet are only mentioned in passing that it's hard to keep track of it all. That and the whole reveal during the final battles about "what's really going on" was a little difficult to follow to say the least.

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My Blog -It's about gaming stuff. You can read it if you want. No pressure. I mean, there's a link there you just have to click on, but... y'know... whatever.Current Post: Grand Re-re-r-e-re-opening!

Would be nice if someone would translate the reviews for once instead of focusing on the numbers that don't mean much of anything.

Just saying.

I don't have a copy or I would. But I'll do some copy-pasting from around the Internet

According to the reviewers, the battles in Lightning Returns are interesting and the feel for speed is great. They are Ă˘â‚¬Ĺ“extremely entertaining,Ă˘â‚¬Âť but if the player fails to pay attention to an enemyĂ˘â‚¬â„˘s weakness even trash mobs can prove difficult. As a result, itĂ˘â‚¬â„˘s important to make split section decisions during battle. Even on Easy mode, Lightning Returns can be surprisingly difficult. The time constraints donĂ˘â‚¬â„˘t appear to factor into that difficulty too much though, and didnĂ˘â‚¬â„˘t stress the reviewers out much at all.

ItĂ˘â‚¬â„˘s not all about the battles, though. Clearing quests is obviously the goal here and the amount of freedom given to the player is so high itĂ˘â‚¬â„˘s easy to get lost in it. Hints for each quest are actually fairly scarce and as a result, it might take casual users a bit to get used to. Players can become absorbed in trying to complete a large number of quests, as well as customizing and strengthening Lightning. The level of uniqueness you can achieve with her appearance and ability setups is said to be Ă˘â‚¬Ĺ“entertaining and stunningĂ˘â‚¬Âť. The reviewer also states that the game is quite beautiful.www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=89626842

Would be nice if someone would translate the reviews for once instead of focusing on the numbers that don't mean much of anything.

Just saying.

Famitsu doesn't post their reviews online. Yes, they are still hawking print media this day and age...

Besides which, a full translation would be a copyright violation. You could do a summary, of course, but you would still need somebody with access to the actual magazine (meaning, in Japan) with the language skills and interest to do that. Which is why you don't usually see it done.